Sunday, 9 December 2012

Frantic Chant - Colour

Single review by KevW

You won't find us arguing about the recent resurgence in psychedelia; long may it continue, or at least until a load of copycat bands try and cash in and we end up with some sort of landfill psychedelia scene, something nobody wants. The barrier that mat prevent such a catastrophe is that with sounds like these you either get them right or it sounds bloody awful; you can get found out very easily. Edinburgh's Frantic Chant have no such problems, and they return with a new single on December 27th. By the way, if you're in the mood for the surreal, go and have a gander at the biography on their Facebook page.

Taking us towards the year's end in a cosmic and trippy fashion will be 'Colour', nearly eight-minutes of layered guitars that recall early Verve as much as any 60s bands. They have one foot in shoegaze here, with the walls of guitar and vocals buried deep in the mix, letting the flurries of guitar take centre stage and add to the mystery of the piece. B-side 'With All Our Friends' could easily have been given double A-side billing, although it sees a drop in pace. It's a more hallucinatory track with a spaced-out feel and spoken-word vocals that are slightly disturbed and slightly chilling but work a treat. If this single is a pointer to a new album on the way then it's definitely one worth looking out for.